1. It is evident that determinants of health and illness cannot be broken down into a single, universal entity, but rather it involves interconnecting mechanisms all contributing to the overall experience of health. These mechanisms stem from one’s culture, for culture serves the purpose in providing people with meaning and a set of beliefs/values to fall back on. One may argue that the definition of well-being is socially constructed whereby normalcy in health is based on one’s culture, what one culture may consider to be a sickness, other culture’s may view this phenomenon in a completely different light. Features such as history, politics, cultural norms, gender, etc. all contribute to a particular cultural identity and thus contribute to the way’s in which health and disease is viewed among said cultures. Through the exploration of these features, one can understand the significant influence culture then has on medical practice and disease. In the Azande community, witchcraft is employed as a means of explaining the relations between men and misfortunes (Evans-Pritchard, 20). While many may believe witchcraft to be supernatural and rather odd, this belief system holds some logic, whereby like other culture’s, it is meant to explain the unexplainable; why abnormalities happen despite usual conditions. This is a prime example where the Azande embody the concept of witchcraft as a significant aspect of their cultural understanding of disease. Despite the fact that this person may have done no wrong in the world, there must be some alternative explanation for why said person is condemned with illness that is out of their control (Evans-Pritchard, 24). In the case of Azande culture, illness is linked to their belief system, where... ... middle of paper ... ... as a disease. While Maoist China held collectivist views and thus regarded individual desire as wrong, post-Maoist China began to recognize impotence as a medical problem to which in light of moral symptomology, hostility towards individual desire was lightened (Zhang, 482). Similar to semantic illness networks, moral symptomology applies language as a significant symbol of underlying mechanisms of society that contribute the experience of illness. Both theories encompass the idea that terms to describe the experience are useful in explaining the society that controls these views. In China with the issue of impotence for example, the way an illness is explained through a set of words, may determine its moral nature; it is the combination that contribute to the overall explanation of the disease which reflects the culture to which the language is derived from.
Witchcraft is the most illogical and despised practices involving the supernatural power. “It implies the ability to injure others. A witch usually acquires his power through an inherent physical factor or through the power of another witch. Witch possess a special organ called mangu, located somewhere behind the sternum or attached to the liver.”[11] Woman/man may become a witch through the influence of another witch or contact with another witch. Witches do not intend to do harm; they are as much the victims of witchcraft as those upon whom they practice it. They have innate power and often don’t know what they are doing. The belief in witchcraft helps people explain the causes of illness, death and misfortune experienced by a person or a group when no other explanations can be found. Most of the time when witches create injury and calamity, they were punished by death, sometimes by exile. They also were forced into admission of guilt by torture, fear, or the hope for lighter punishment. “Most witches work by night, are capable of covering long distances very rapidly, tem...
Culture is one of the most respected pieces of a person’s life, as it leads and directs their every day living, but also how they view life as a whole picture. We all have the right to our own perspectives and beliefs. Attributing factors could be family upbringing, education, marrying of a spouse, or even worldly travels and experiences. Jarvis (2012), acknowledges that culture involves a persons beliefs, values, and thoughts while implementing their race, ethnicity, and religion. The ability to learn about ones culture, and accommodate them in times of illness and challenges, is a special characteristic. This is an attribute that many accomplished nurses have because of Madeleine Leininger’s Theory of Culture Care Diversity and Universality.
The thought of magic, witches, and sorcery to be fact is seen as preposterous in modern America. Coincidence is accepted as such and accusations of possession and bewitchment is extinct. When North America was first colonized by Europeans, however, the fear of magic and the like was all too real. Alison Games’s “Witchcraft in Early North America” describes the effects of the Europeans’ on the Native Americans and vice versa. As decades progressed, the ideas on witchcraft of the Spanish and British changed as well. “Witchcraft in Early North America” introduces different beliefs and practices of witchcraft of Europeans before colonization, Native Americans after colonization, the Spanish of New Mexico, and the British Colonies.
Through showing the different definitions of health, the authors explain how those different understandings affect patterns of behavior on health depend on different cultures. In addition, an analysis of the models of health demonstrates even western medical approaches to health have different cognitions, same as the Indigenous health beliefs. The most remarkable aspect is a balance, a corresponding core element in most cultures which is an important consideration in Indigenous health as well. From an Indigenous perspective, health is considered as being linked, and keeping the connection is a priority to preserve their health. Consequently, health is a very much culturally determined. Health practitioners should anticipate and respect the cultural differences when they encounter a patient from various cultures. In particular, this article is good to understand why the Indigenous health beliefs are not that different than western medicine views using appropriate examples and comparative composition, even though the implementation the authors indicated is a bit abstract, not
Witchcraft is said to be the most widespread cultural phenomenon in existence today and throughout history. Even those who shun the ideas of witchcraft cannot discount the similarities in stories from all corners of the globe. Witchcraft and its ideas have spread across racial, religious, and language barriers from Asia to Africa to America. Primitive people from different areas in the world have shockingly similar accounts of witchcraft occurrences. In most cases the strange parallels cannot be explained and one is only left to assume that the tales hold some truth. Anthropologists say that many common elements about witchcraft are shared by different cultures in the world. Among these common elements are the physical characteristics and the activities of supposed witches. I will go on to highlight some of the witch characteristic parallels found in printed accounts from different parts of the world and their comparisons to some famous fairytales.
Culture is the thoughts, communications, actions, beliefs, values, and institutions racial, ethnic, religious, or social groups (Jarvis, 2012, p 14). Every culture has its own view/ understanding about health care, health and illnesses. Although what might be seen as acceptable in one culture, may not be acceptable in another, regardless of where you are health care and culture will always exist. My definition of culture is the way someone lives his or her life in a daily basis; which includes things like the language one speaks in and out of the home, food one eats, music one listens to, and one religious practice. The culture I will be writing about is the Dominicans culture from the Dominican Republic.
The Azande are a group of people that live on the Nile-Congo line. They are huge believers in witchcraft, oracles, magic, and other ritual performances. The Azande believe that witches can bring harm to them through psychic acts. The Azande believe that if something atrocious happens to them that the witches are the ones accountable. It can be a colossal coincidence that they got hurt or sick, but they hold the witches accountable for everything undesirable. In Zandeland an old granary collapsed. It killed and injured many that were underneath it. They blamed it on witchcraft, but things like this would happen all the time, in Zandeland and can happen now in the present day. If something like this occurred today, witchcraft would not
The book begins with a brief history of the colonial witchcraft. Each Chapter is structured with an orientation, presentation of evidence, and her conclusion. A good example of her structure is in chapter two on the demographics of witchcraft; here she summarizes the importance of age and marital status in witchcraft accusations. Following this she provides a good transition into chapter three in the final sentence of chapter two, “A closer look of the material conditions and behavior of acc...
“An individual’s culture shapes how he or she understands, seeks, reacts to, and expresses feelings about health care throughout the continuum of wellness, including presickness, sickness, and recovery” (Marzilli, 2014, p. 230). Understanding how culture can impact a patient, their needs, and beliefs can improve patient outcomes and improve satisfaction rates.
Sidky, H. Witchcraft, lycanthropy, drugs, and disease: an anthropological study of the European witch-hunts. New York: Peter Lang Publishing Inc., 1997.
Over the centuries, the concept of Witchcraft, as it presented within religion and society, evoked a variety of responses and attitudes that permeated throughout the cultures of the world. Christianity incited wars and hysteria and chaos in the name of extinguishing the practice of Witchcraft. Today there are prominent religions within many cultures that uphold the practice of witchcraft as a feasible manifestation of spirituality. The term conjures a variety of images for a diverse range of people. To the Azande, witchcraft and oracles and magic existed in everyday life as permeation of the Zande culture. In Witchcraft, Oracles, and Magic Among the Azande, E.E. Evans-Pritchard focuses on the beliefs associated with witchcraft and how they manifest in the social structure of the Community.
To further introduce Medical Anthropology, I will reiterate highlights of my previous presentations. Early on in Turkey, I asked each person in our program the following question: "I would like you to tell me about health and what it means to you?" The answers to this question varied widely, making it difficult to define a global conception of health. In analyzing the answers, I established the following five components of health:
Social Anthropology seeks to gauge an understanding of cultures and practices whether they are foreign or native. This is achieved through the studying of language, education, customs, marriage, kinship, hierarchy and of course belief and value systems. Rationality is a key concept in this process as it affects the anthropologist’s interpretation of the studied group’s way of life: what s/he deems as rational or plausible practice. Witchcraft and magic pose problems for many anthropologists, as its supernatural nature is perhaps conflicting to the common Western notions of rationality, mainly deemed superior. In this essay I will be exploring the relationship between rationality and witchcraft and magic, and will further explore rationality as a factor of knowledge.
III. Smithson, Jayne. “Magic, Witchcraft, and Religion.” Class lectures. Anthropology 120. Diablo Valley College, San Ramon 2004.
The Enlightenment and the emerging of modern rationalism have paved the way to a worldview where the suspicion of witchcraft is not needed to explain the mysterious phenomena of this world. This is not the case in Africa. The belief in the existence of witches, evil persons who are able to harm others by using mystical powers, is part of the common cultural knowledge. Samuel Waje Kunhiyop states, “Almost all African societies believe in witchcraft in one form or another. Belief in witchcraft is the traditional way of explaining the ultimate cause of evil, misfortune or death.” The African worldview is holistic. In this perception, things do not just happen. What happens, either good or bad, is traced back to human action, including “ancestors who can intervene by blessing or cursing the living.” Witches, on the other hand, harm because they want to destroy life. Every misfortune or problem can be related to witchcraft, especially when natural explanation is not satisfactory.